Thursday, June 02, 2011

The books are *in your hands*....

Moliere famously said (or wrote, I forget which): "Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money."

This was in the back of my mind when I went to visit the new site Unbound ("the books are in your hands"). This site essentially allows readers to directly fund books by relatively prominent, previously published British authors.

Somehow the whole thing seems unseemly in a very unBritish way. The price card ranges from a tenner for an ebook copy and your name in a list at the back of the book, to 250 quid for lunch with the author and an invite to the launch party.

I almost expected to see a special thousand pound package where you get a private reading of the book and a lap dance from the author.